Poker Strategy - Intro to No-Limit Texas Hold'em

No-Limit Hold'em is a
game of general strategy, basic tactical skills useful in all
forms of poker, and a game of intense psychology.

Let's first talk basic
strategy. When you enter a No-Limit ring game, you need to know
two things before you can expect to really roll with it:

Who are my opponents?

How many hands go to
a showdown?

Types of opponents

Generally, people speak
of four types of players: tight-passive, tight-aggressive,
loose-passive, loose-aggressive. The first modifier (tight or
loose) characterizes the number of hands the person plays while
the second (passive or aggressive) describes the player's
betting style. I think for No-Limit Hold'em, loose-aggressive
should be divided into two parts: action-seekers and solid
players. Let's go through each of these types of players.

Tight-passives:
These people do fine in a Limit game, but they won't make much
in a No-Limit game. The only time these people will win is when
they pick off bluffs; otherwise they won't get the value out of
their hands that they should. When matched against these
players:

Bluff at the flop
a lot.
Put in a raise preflop and bet at the flop no matter what
calls.

Fold when they
represent a hand.
If they bet a little, they're probably on a draw. So stick
with your hand if you got something. If they bet a lot, they
got something good.

Take advantage of
your control.
Don't go wild with your bluffs though. Fold preflop when you
have nothing. But raise when you have a good hand and go for
the kill at the flop. If you miss the kill, give up. But when
you have something, milk him for everything it is worth.

Essentially, you can
quickly tame these players into being frequent calling stations
or folding stations. And if he is making money against you while
being a calling or folding station, you are doing something
drastically wrong. These players are common, and you will
certainly play against quite a few of them.

Loose-passives:
They have to hope that people continually bluff into them
because these people will call frequently with the second best
hand. Calling with the second best hand is a recipe for disaster
at No-Limit. You don't see too many of these loose-passive
players at No-Limit games because they lose so quickly and run
to Limit games.

Maniac loose-aggressive:
These guys will buy a fair share of pots, but then will get
themselves trapped by another aggressive player and will lose
their stacks in one or two hands. What separates these from good
loose-aggressives is that they lack discipline. They love the
action of No-Limit so much that they get themselves trapped too
easily. These players are even rarer than loose-passives in my
experience.

Strong loose-aggressive:
These guys seem like they are horrible maniacs, but in reality,
they are a very dangerous form of player. These guys will
certainly lose a lot of money in pots, but they also will buy a
lot of pots and will win huge ones. The way these types of
players win is mainly by getting a good read on the opponent and
then making a well-timed bet.

My main tactic against
these players is to trap them in their own game. I generally try
to avoid having the pot escalate too much preflop unless I have
Aces or Kings, and I generally try to not let them buy every
pot. In other words, when I put in the raise preflop, I'll still
often make a stab at the pot at the flop.

More importantly though,
the way I beat these guys is to take them down at one big pot.
Since these guys will play a lot of hands, especially
shorthanded, they'll often play hands that lend themselves to be
second best hands. Once I catch them in this situation, I just
have to make sure I don't let them go too easily.

Tight-aggressive:
This is my style and the style and the strategy that I'll teach.
The tight-aggressive's main problems are that he may get chased
out of a lot of flops early and that he may be too easily read.
If I were to play against a clone of myself, I would hope to
trickle him down bit by bit and hope to throw him off balance by
doing so.

Showdown
Percentage

This is a critical
concept in No-Limit. Since No-Limit lends itself to bluffing,
one can make a lot of money simply by stealing pots if your
opponents are very passive. However, this strategy obviously
fails if everyone shows you down to the river!

Generally, before I play
in a high-stakes game, I pay attention to the number of hands
going to showdowns. This is really easy to do on the internet
because you don't even need to watch the game. You just leave
the window open, go eat a snack, go to the bathroom, whatever.
Come back twenty minutes later and see what sort of game you are
about to dive in. All you have to do is scroll through the chat
box and see how many hands went to showdowns and how big the
pots tend to get.

All things being equal,
the more showdowns the better. While it is impossible to bluff
if everyone will call you down, you stand to make a lot more
money if people will call you with tenuous holdings. The best
way to make money at no-limit games is to simply sell your hand
when you have it. If people tend to call down a lot, you will be
able to extract a lot of money from about pot-sized bets or more
when you hit a premium holding (such as a flush or set).

Types of Hands
to Play

The types of hands you
play in No-Limit differ than those in Limit. This is because of
implied odds. Hands like K Q
go down in value because they cannot withstand much pressure.
Even if you hit a K with this type of hand, you still may be
losing to a set, two pair, AK, or may lose eventually to a draw.
Thus, with big cards, you generally want to take down the pot at
the flop. The exception to this is if you think you have someone
outkicked (say AK vs. KJ with a K on the board), or if you hit
the flop hard (like KK3 when you hold AK). In these cases, you
generally want to extract money from your opponent bit by bit.

The types of hands that
go up in value or ones that you can bet with confidence: pocket
pairs and suited connectors (strong draws in general). Pocket
pairs do well because they are sneaky and can often withhold
pressure. With pocket pairs, you can bet hard if you have a set
or an overpair, which are hands that people generally don't
expect. Suited connectors go up in value for several reasons.
First, if the flop comes weird, you generally will be paid off.

You

Opponent

Flop

You'll get paid off a
lot more on this flop than you would lose to the AK if the flop
were A 7 2.

Furthermore, you can
take down pots and disguise your hand with semi-bluffing.

Your Hand

Board

People will probably put
you on a Jack if you bet at this flop. They will then either
fold or call. You'll either take down the pot at the flop, or
you'll be drawing to a hand that people don't expect. If the
final board is J 5 4 8 A,
and your opponent holds A J,
expect a huge reward.

How to Bet

Many novice No-Limit
players simply don't know how much to bet. Well, the concept is
simple. You want extract as much money from people who have made
hands but are probably losing to you, you want to punish draws,
but at the same time you don't want to be trapping yourself.

Your Hand

Board

Let's say you are pretty
sure he doesn't have JT. You want to put in about pot-size bets
here. Reason: He either has a straight draw or a pair of Aces.
If he has a straight, you don't want him to draw on the cheap.
If he has pair of Aces, he probably won't let go of them so take
as much as you can.

Your Hand

Board

Bet into this flop. But
don't bet too much, just enough to make people fold if they
don't have an Ace but enough to maybe make an AQ just freeze up
and call. A 1/2 pot-size bet would be good. This way you draw
relatively cheaply and punish if you hit your flush.

Bluffing

This relates back to the
showdown percentage. More showdowns means bluffing works less.
If you are in a game with a lot of showdowns (typical of lower
limits), cut down on bluffing and punish them when you have the
boss hand.

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